The interim report about the work of the Steps Project was written and sent to the European Union in May 2003.
The documents contains the interim report and the reports from the partnerships in Lidingö,
Rotterdam and Barcelona.

People with learning disabilities are one of the most marginalized groups in European society, rarely
recognised as full citizens with equal rights. The European action research programme "STEPS"
focuses on structures, instruments and methods to combat the discrimination of people with learning
disabilities and aims at full participation and free access to material, cultural and social resources.

In STEPS different municipalities with different cultural backgrounds, different social
welfare systems and different traditions in social work are planing to improve, shape and change
services for people with learning disabilities in order to reduce discrimination and exclusion.
The partners from London/Canterbury, Barcelona, Lidingö/Uppsala, Rotterdam and Hamburg want to
develop ways towards emancipation, participation and solidarity. The differences of structures and
backgrounds in cities, services and institutions involved in STEPS are a chance to share experiences,
best practices and also failures. Even taking these differences into consideration, the following ten
starting-points have been identified as key challenges for STEPS and the local partnerships.

Non-discrimination and inclusion means participation and valuing people. The partners
in STEPS are looking for best practices and methods to meet individual needs according to
individual preferences. Structures in politics and the institutions which do not correspond with
this issue should be dissolved. New methods, financing structures and best practices will have
to cope with the ambivalence of risk and shelter, the ambivalence between organised services and
individual needs, and between care and autonomy. They should help to balance these ambivalences in
order to support full participation, emancipation and solidarity.

A stable network of local partnerships in five European municipalities, - joining
perspectives of providers, administration and scientific research - is being developed in order to
approach the following main objectives.
It is clear that every local partnership will have different priorities within these objectives
and will contribute in its own specific way. Nevertheless every partner accepts the following points
as main objectives in the second phase of STEPS.